I used Cheat-O-Matic back in the day; no idea if it’s still useful anywhere.
I also had success with using a hex editor to mess with save files. Particularly on my Commodore 64; one save so edited was Street Rod – gave myself the maximum cash so I could just focus on racing and repairs.
I remember that! Cheat Engine is the modern version of it. Cheathappens and Wemod also commercialized the concept into easy to use trainers.
For Skyrim and the Fallouts I’ve used cheat codes, but pretty exclusively to deal with the bugs. On occasion do do something funny, but I didn’t save afterwards. True for cheat codes in general.
Hmmm, that reminds me of using cheats back in the day with Grand Theft Auto III and so on. When I decided it was time to log out sometimes I’d amuse myself by using the cheat codes for “spawn tank”, “give all NPCs weapons” and “make all NPCs hostile to everything”, then see how long I could last as the whole city went up in fire and explosions. Then log out after I got sent to the hospital.
I’m definitely not above save-scumming. Rarely to just get a better item in a chest but I just hate playing for 30 minutes, getting killed and losing that 30 minutes (or sent to the beginning of the level). Drives me bonkers.
I try to get past tests and challenges on my own but if one is causing me trouble I will happily Google the solution.
I almost never use cheat codes but I won’t belittle others who do. Play your own way.
I do like tips-and-tricks videos though to see how others are doing things and if there is another or better way I could do something. Baldur’s Gate 3 this was a big one for me. So many ways to do things, I like seeing what others come up with.
I get the hankering to play a game again but some are tough to get back into. I used to play a lot of computer RPG games but now prefer action games. Something I can jump into, play a bit, and then if I don’t come back to it for a week, no big deal.
Having said that, I’m doing a replay of BG3. I’m definitely looking things up. I did do a few things that I almost want to undo but will have to remember for the next playthrough. I also use cheat mods.
I was getting into BG3/RPGs and thought I should play Wrath of the Righteous again. Ugh. I have played that first part in the city SO MUCH and am sick of it. At least BG3 Act I is somewhat open in that area. WotR is linear. A few choices in the city from time to time but not as much. I also HATE the commander side and want that cut out. Anyway, I loaded it up, didn’t even get back up to the city, and realized I doubt I will make it to the part I want to play, which is the planar stuff. I didn’t really get to see much of it in one of my plays and never finished it.
Thanks for the discussion!
I love playing RPG’s with friends with dice and a human DM. I have not tried an RPG video game for a few years. Every time I try one, I find my actions and choices incredibly limited compared to sitting at a table. This problem has certainly gotten better over the years, but it still is a big problem for me.
Sadly it’s been decades since I had the opportunity to play a tabletop RPG, and even then I was always the gamemaster/DM, not a player. So it’s been CRPGs or nothing.
I’d recommend you give Baldur’s Gate 3 a go. While a live RPG with people will always be more flexible I think you’d be really shocked at how many ways you can tackle a problem in BG3. It really is remarkable. A true high water mark for a CRPG.
I agree 100% but…
is mostly my experience as well. My local gaming friends mostly moved out of state over a decade ago, and the two attempts since to find a group failed due to scheduling and compatibility issues.
Have you tried gaming via Zoom (or something like it)?
Some of them have tried hybrid groups (via various dedicated online apps) but managing schedules between work and multiple time zones has made it a nightmare. It’s much easier to all get together and play WoW where no one has to invest time and prep in DM/GMing, and if we only manage to play for 2-3 hours before one of us needs to sleep, well, no need to worry about where we left off the prior week.
I -could- go looking for online groups, but that involves finding a stable group, that isn’t burdened by the same issues, whose weird tics I can tolerate, and who can manage to tolerate my weird tics. Ever harder as I get older. Dang-it, I remember gaming (or board/wargaming) 2-3 times a WEEK in person with friends through high school and college.
Tonight (our dedicated get together and play WoW, bitch, and joke around), my wife (part of the group) was kept late 45 minutes by work, then less than 5 minutes after she got home, had to grab her work laptop and spend 30 more minutes handling a priority issue. We then got to play for 90 minutes, before she crashed after that 5th 10 hour day counting the extras. We played Starcraft 2 for one round, before another of our friends had to go offline for an hour to handle a zoom call because one of the teams working on Towerborne pushed through a change without talking to other teams and it had to be rolled back because of the errors.
So, yeah, lots of delays, even best case scenario. And while this evening was not one of the better examples, it also was far from the worst.
Sometimes I really hate being a grown-up. 
I think I know what you mean about gameplay- everything about TOW seems surprisingly easy so far— the battles with raiders I mean marauders, I’ve already picked up a pretty powerful laser weapon and grabbed a ton of ammo and stimpacks adrena-shots, even my persuasion attempts have mostly succeeded, and I’ve only leveled up a couple times. Early on in the Fallout games I must have died a thousand times before I leveled up enough to get through a battle without dying once. I was a gaming newb then, but I don’t think I’m that much better of a gamer now. Maybe the game is still taking it easy on me and it’ll get more challenging.
Anyway, I played a couple hours of TOW last night and just leaned into enjoying the story. Did a few side quests for the Adelaide-led deserters and gained rep with them. Pretty soon I guess I’ll be taking down the cannery, and things might get more interesting and challenging then.
I keep hearing good things about BG3, in this and other threads. I’ll have to keep an eye out for a Steam sale. Got a little backlog of games though, so it’ll be a couple months at least before I’d get to it.
BG3’s next and final big patch should be out in a few months, which adds a bunch of new subclasses and story stuff. Might be a nice time to get into it.
It’s really worth checking out though! It was the highest-rated (ever) video game at several review sites, and it’s one of those really rare once-in-a-generation games that lurches the industry forward and totally resets expectations for what is possible in a game. The writing is 3x longer than Lord of the Rings and the cut scenes are longer than the entire Game of Thrones series.. There are so many different choices and sub endings that players are still not sure they’ve all been discovered and have had to resort to data mining the game’s files to try to find the others.
Anyway, we have an entire other thread about it: Baldur's Gate 3! {finally Released August 3rd, 2023}
The 1500+ posts there can you help decide if you want to play it, lol
Not kidding. This article is a year(ish) after the game’s release:
Well, one, I do think that the initial planet is in fact a bit easier than the later content (depending on how aggressively you’ve been leveling) but it’s also the one that is most fully developed. I was somewhat depressed that most of the other areas weren’t quite as deeply developed (that doesn’t mean they’re all shallow or lacking, just a bit less intricate and nuanced).
Second, since it does tie into the same playstyles you’ll have developed in Fallout, almost all those developed habits and styles will work extremely well, from stealth sniper, to high communications builds, and the rest. One thing I really did like mechanically though, is as you develop your companions, you can have companion forward builds, where you improve them more than yourself, and they’re more than a packmule, especially since you can control them a bit better than Fallout does. And because of how their skills effect yours, you can use them to patch over weaknesses in your skill builds, or double down on your strengths.
That is another problem I have with RPG videogames. Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, combat was turn based. The player had a chance to decide what spell a companion would cast, what attack they would make etc. Now, combat happens in real time and companion behavior is controlled by a program.
This is true, and different games companion AI are normally different flavors of bad, which is why so many of us relegate them to the role of packmule! TOW companions are better than most, and the skill sharing system means that they actually also show use outside of combat.
But compared to the interaction, the feedback, and even the amusing hassles of balancing a TT-RPG party? No, not ever going to be close. And for those of us who love to micromanage (
) it’s also going to be far short of the total party control I remember from my Bard’s Tale / Grandia / etc. memories either.
Just +1 on using guides when I get stuck.
Games are enough of a time hole as it is, that it’s just not worth it if something is stopping my enjoyment for an hour or more.
Plus usually when I’m stuck on something it will turn out to be because of a glitch or just poor design. It’s pretty rare that I look up the solution to something and it’s a headsmack “I should have thought of that”. It happens, but it’s rare.
Good info, thanks! I’m traveling with Parvati, and I did notice a message last night saying something like “your companion has leveled up” and I thought, well, that’s different from Fallout.
Companion question: one of the rare times I’ve been killed by marauders before I killed them, Parvati went down just before me. Can companions die permanently, or do they they just go down for the count mid-battle, and then are good as new again when it’s over, like in Fallout?
Yeah, I wasn’t entirely on board with the plot (the hyper-capitalism was going on a bit too thick for me; not out of capitalist sympathies, I just stopped finding it funny when it was 100% everywhere) but it was the weaker game play and leveling/perk systems that made me give up on it. I could see where other people would have fun with it and it wasn’t a bad game, I just couldn’t find a hook to keep myself going.